Ponting Speaks

These last few weeks have seen a great number of Cricket Books, mainly autobiographies I might add make their way in public domain. While the big one of course is Steve Waugh's "Out of My Comfort Zone" a large number of them have been those of the stars of this past Ashes series - Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff from England, now Ricky Ponting from Australia.

Speaking in his book Ashes Diary 2005 and about it Ponting does some good talking. I am not a great fan of the bloke and have been quite critical of him on this blog before but I appreciate his honest, forthright comments here:

Check out this extract in particular of what he felt on the day he lost the Ashes:

“The hardest thing about our defeat is that we know what went wrong — we failed with the bat, lacked penetration and control with the ball (Warne and McGrath excepted), dropped catches, bowled far too many no-balls and lost Glenn McGrath to injury for the vital Edgbaston Test. But that was WHAT went wrong; the reasons WHY we failed remain a mystery. England played well, putting us under pressure with bat and ball. Despite their excellence, we should still have been able to compete far more effectively than we did.”

Honest, yes. Forthright yes. More importantly pretty accurate according to me. Australia, all said and done, definitely had the team that COULD have competed and probably got the better of England. If you are willing to be so forthright about it, Ricky, is it too harsh of me to suggest that in answer to your WHY question I might put up your failed leadership as a possible reason ? After all, given such established resources, isn't it more or less up to the captain to ensure their optimum utilization. Can you go one step ahead and agree with the opinion of several experts that you were in fact, "outcaptained" by Michael Vaughan ?

Anyway, about Shane Warne:

Ponting said that of the entire touring squad only Shane Warne could look at himself in the mirror and know he had played to his full potential. “The rest of us have just hinted at the form we are capable of, and that has cost us the series,” he wrote.

Again, very good of the bloke to acknowledge. Of course there was talk of big disagreements between Warne and Ponting during the Ashes and it is very likely it was true. Both are of courses colossuses in their respective arts. Of course, I do believe that Warne would make an excellent captain for Australia - I know that is not likely to happen - I heard someone tell me that Ponting has gone on record to say that Warne would have to wait in line if he wants to lead Australia.

Quite indisputably I think Warne is a much more likeable and intelligent person than Ponting but I do feel it necessary to appreciate Ponting here.

Ponting quotes and news source - this DNA article.